Len Lipkin

Birthday Party Retrospective

A couple of weeks ago, I took my son to a birthday party for a boy he had spent his entire preschool life with. Ho-hum, another kids birthday party. Except for one thing.

Len Lipkin

Don’t Trust Your Friends Redux

When ultimately a choice is made, it makes sense that a parent wants reassurance that they have made the right one. Influencing a friend or neighbor to make the same school choice is a validation.

Len Lipkin

Friends Don’t Let Friends Pick Schools

This Mt. Airy Patch article from Virginia McGuire is the first in a promised series of articles on school choice in Philadelphia. I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Len Lipkin

Deep Freeze for Prospective Penn Alexander Parents [Video]

It's great that the district has a school that inspires parents, but clearly there is something wrong with a system that necessitates parents camping out overnight in single digit temperatures.

Len Lipkin

Don’t Trust Your Friends When it Comes to School Choices

There is not a single school among the large number that I have considered that do not have passionate advocates and vocal detractors.

Len Lipkin

Watching Words

As much as all of us who are sending our kids to kindergarten next year talk about schools, there is so much that we don't say to one another. We don't want to offend, we don't want others to feel judged for their priorities.

Lisa Marchiano

Why I Homeschool Part 2: Curriculum

Where does the “school” part of homeschooling come in?  Here is where we get to what I imagine other parents are thinking of when they say “I could never do that.”  In their minds, I imagine, my children are hunched over workbooks at the kitchen table while I quiz them on phonics rules, or demand that they recite their times tables.  More than one parent has told me that they thought about...

Lisa Marchiano

Why I Homeschool Part 1: Time and Fun

“I could never do that!” That is the single most common response I get when I tell people that I homeschool.  It perplexes me.  “Why?”  I sometimes want to ask.  What is that they think I am doing that feels impossible for them to do to?  Of course, homeschooling is not for everyone.  School choice is a very personal and complex decision, and homeschooling is not even an option for most...